Dual vial adapter assemblages for use with a drug vial containing a medicament and a liquid vial containing liquid contents for mixing with or reconstituting the medicament in the drug vial to form a liquid drug include a liquid vial adapter for telescopic mounting on the liquid vial and a drug vial adapter for telescopic mounting on the drug vial. Dual vial adapter assemblages can be generally classified into two types as follows: A negative pressure type intended to be used with a drug vial under negative pressure for positively drawing liquid contents from a liquid vial thereinto. A gravitational flow type employing a gravitational flow of liquid contents from a liquid vial to a drug vial. The former type is generally intended for preparing a small liquid drug dosage and the latter type is generally intended for preparing a large liquid drug volume suitable for administration of several small liquid drug dosages or use with an IV infusion set.
One exemplary negative pressure type of dual vial adapter assemblage is disclosed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 6,558,365 to Zinger et al. entitled Fluid Transfer Device including a liquid vial adapter having a male connector and a drug vial adapter having a female connector. The male connector is preferably a male Luer lock connector and the female connector is preferably a female Luer connector with a screw thread for screw thread attachment of a male Luer lock connector thereon. Such dual vial adapter assemblages are commercially available from West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc., Exton, USA under the registered trademark MIX2VIAL.
Another exemplary negative pressure type of dual vial adapter assemblage is disclosed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 8,684,994 to Lev et al. entitled Fluid Transfer Assembly with Venting Arrangement. The dual vial adapter assemblage includes a vented female vial adapter and a male vial adapter. The vented female vial adapter includes a venting arrangement and the male vial adapter includes a sealing arrangement for selectively sealing the venting arrangement. The dual vial adapter assemblage is designed such that only filtered air is drawn into a drug vial under negative pressure subsequent to reconstitution of liquid drug contents to ensure sterile conditions.
The negative pressure type of dual vial adapter assemblages specifically requires a user to initially telescopically mount a liquid vial adapter on a liquid vial and only thereafter telescopically mount a drug vial adapter on a drug vial otherwise negative pressure is lost thereby rendering the dual vial adapter assemblage inoperable. Leakage of negative pressure or insufficient negative pressure may lead to insufficient drawing of liquid contents from a liquid vial to a drug vial.
One exemplary gravitational flow type of dual vial adapter assemblage is disclosed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 8,752,598 to Denenburg et al. entitled Liquid Drug Transfer Assembly. U.S. Pat. No. '598 FIG. 9 shows a dual vial adapter assemblage including a drug vial adapter with a female connector and a liquid vial adapter with a dual lumen dual ended liquid transfer spike for puncturing both a liquid vial stopper and a drug vial stopper. The dual vial adapter assemblage advantageously does not require a specific order of telescopic mounting on a liquid vial and a drug vial but the gravitational based transfer of the liquid contents from a liquid vial to a drug vial through a dual lumen dual ended liquid transfer spike can take longer compared to positive drawing of liquid contents. Moreover, such dual vial adapter assemblages can suffer from incomplete transfer of liquid contents from a liquid vial to a drug vial.
There is a need for dual vial adapter assemblages for facilitating rapid transfer of entire liquid contents from a liquid vial to a drug vial irrespective of whether a drug vial is under negative pressure.